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Browse publications authored by our scientists.  Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more. **Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

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Our Story

Blooming wildflowers in Pinnacles National Park.

The circular highlights how our research efforts fulfill larger USGS strategic goals.

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Our History

Tricolored Heron at Ding Darling National Park

This book is dedicated to those who are or have been associated with the unit program. 

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Our Research

Yellow-billed Loon on a lake in the northern area of Alaska.

This report provides abstracts of most of the ongoing and recently completed research.

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Filter Total Items: 3984

Extreme drought and adaptive resource selection by a desert mammal

When animals select areas to occupy, decisions involve trade-offs between the fitness benefits of obtaining critical resources and minimizing costs of biotic and abiotic factors that constrain their use. These processes can be more dynamic and complex for species inhabiting desert environments, where highly variable spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation can create high intra- and inte
Authors
Jay V. Gedir, James W. Cain, Tyson Swetnam, Paul R. Krausman, John R. Morgart
By
Cooperative Research Units

Indexing age-0 Walleye abundance in northern Wisconsin lakes Before fall

Age-0 Walleye Sander vitreus recruitment is often indexed using fall electrofishing surveys. However, collecting fish before fall may provide timely information regarding stocking decisions and factors influencing recruitment. We evaluated sampling methods for age-0 Walleye in northern Wisconsin lakes that could be used to assess recruitment in spring and summer. Initial assessments on two lakes i
Authors
Hadley I. A. Boehm, Jason C. Gostiaux, Gretchen J. A. Hansen, Daniel A. Isermann
By
Cooperative Research Units

Wave-like patterns of plant phenology determine ungulate movement tactics

Animals exhibit a diversity of movement tactics [1]. Tracking resources that change across space and time is predicted to be a fundamental driver of animal movement [2]. For example, some migratory ungulates (i.e., hooved mammals) closely track the progression of highly nutritious plant green-up, a phenomenon called “green-wave surfing” [3-5]. Yet, general principles describing how the dynamic nat
Authors
Ellen O. Aikens, Atle Mysterud, Jerod A. Merkle, Francesca Cagnacci, Inger Maren Rivrud, Mark Hebblewhite, Mark Hurley, Wibke Peters, Scott Bergen, Johannes De Groeve, Samantha P. H. Dwinnell, Benedikt Gehr, Marco Heurich, A. J. Mark Hewison, Anders Jarnemo, Petter Kjellander, Max Kröschel, Alain Licoppe, John D. C. Linnell, Evelyn H. Merrill, Arthur D. Middleton, Nicolas Morellet, Lalenia Neufeld, Anna C. Ortega, Katherine L. Parker, Luca Pedrotti, Kelly Proffitt, Sonia Saïd, Hall Sawyer, Brandon M. Scurlock, Johannes Signer, Patrick Stent, Pavel Šustr, Tara Szkorupa, Kevin L. Monteith, Matthew Kauffman
By
Cooperative Research Units

Living on the edge: Multi-scale analyses of bird habitat use in coastal marshes of Barataria Basin, Louisiana, USA

Coastal marsh loss, combined with expected sea-level rise, will cause inundation and extensive shifts to vegetation and salinity regimes that may affect the bird species dependent on coastal ecosystems worldwide. Within coastal marsh habitats, birds provide key targets for coastal management goals. However, limited information on bird-habitat relationships within coastal marshes inhibits the devel
Authors
Brett Patton, J. A. Nyman, Megan K. La Peyre
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Cooperative Research Units, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Projected climate and land use changes drive plant community composition in agricultural wetlands

Playa wetlands in the Great Plains, USA support a wide variety of plant species not found elsewhere in this agriculturally-dominated region due to the ephemeral presence of standing water and hydric soils within playas. If longer dry periods occur due to climate change or if changes in surrounding land use alter sediment accumulation rates and water storage capacity in playas, plant communities co
Authors
Rachel K. Owen, Elisabeth B. Webb, David A. Haukos, Keith W. Goyne
By
Cooperative Research Units

Defining the need for genetic stock assignment when describing stock demographics and dynamics: An example using Lake Whitefish in Lake Michigan

Genetic stock assignment is not routinely used when describing the dynamics and demographics of individual stocks supporting mixed-stock fisheries, and capture location and timing are often used as alternative assignment methods. However, variation in stock demographics and dynamics may not be accounted for if stock assignments based on capture location or timing do not accurately reflect genetic
Authors
Daniel A. Isermann, Matthew J. Belnap, Keith N. Turnquist, Brian L. Sloss, Justin A. VanDeHey, Scott P. Hansen, David C. Caroffino
By
Cooperative Research Units

A multifaceted reconstruction of the population structure and life history expressions of a remnant metapopulation of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout: Implications for maintaining intermittent connectivity

Fishes that evolutionarily demonstrated a fluvial life history expression and migrated to spawning and rearing habitat by using lotic corridors are increasingly impacted by fragmentation. The overall goal of this study was to identify the contemporary importance of main-stem connectivity and tributaries for maintaining life history expression, population structure, and viability of a large metapop
Authors
Phaedra E. Budy, Paul D. Thompson, Matt D. McKell, Gary P. Thiede, Timothy E. Walsworth, Mary M. Conner
By
Cooperative Research Units

The abundance of Greater Sage-Grouse as a proxy for the abundance of sagebrush-associated songbirds in Wyoming, USA

Surrogate-species concepts are prevalent in animal conservation. Such strategies advocate for conservation by proxy, wherein one species is used to represent other taxa to obtain a conservation objective. The efficacy of such approaches has been rarely assessed empirically, but is predicated on concordance between the surrogate and sympatric taxa in distribution, abundance, and ecological requirem
Authors
Jason D. Carlisle, Anna D. Chalfoun
By
Cooperative Research Units, Land Management Research Program

Diet of a rare herbivore based on DNA metabarcoding of feces: Selection, seasonality, and survival

In herbivores, survival and reproduction are influenced by quality and quantity of forage, and hence, diet and foraging behavior are the foundation of an herbivore's life history strategy. Given the importance of diet to most herbivores, it is imperative that we know the species of plants they prefer, especially for herbivorous species that are at risk for extinction. However, it is often difficul
Authors
Amanda R. Goldberg, Courtney J. Conway, David C. Tank, Kimberly R. Andrews, Digpal S. Gour, Lisette P. Waits
By
Cooperative Research Units

Environmental and social factors influencing wolf (Canis lupus) howling behavior

Animals communicate in a variety of ways and calls are used for a number of important behaviors. Temperature, wind, time of day, and human activities can affect animals’ use of calls, particularly over long distances. Effects of group size on the use of calls can be particularly influential in territorial social carnivores. Where gray wolves (Canis lupus) are hunted by humans, for example, howling
Authors
David Edward Ausband, Sarah B. Bassing, Michael S. Mitchell
By
Cooperative Research Units

Balancing fish-energy-cost tradeoffs through strategic basin-wide dam management

Dam management often involves tradeoffs among hydropower generation capacity, environmental impacts, and project costs. However, our understandings of such tradeoffs under a full range of dam management options remain limited, which hinders our ability to make sound and scientifically defensible dam management decisions. In order to assess the scope for theoretical tradeoffs, a dynamic model of hy
Authors
Cuihong Song, Andrew O'Malley, Joseph D. Zydlewski, Weiwei Mo
By
Cooperative Research Units

The influence of hunting pressure and ecological factors on fecal glucocorticoid metabolites in wild elk

Climate change and human population growth have increased anthropogenic threats to biodiversity and habitat fragmentation. Ecologists and conservationists need tools to assess the effect of these ecological and environmental perturbations on organismal fitness. One possibility is glucocorticoids (e.g., cortisol and corticosterone) which integrate various factors such as anthropogenic disturbances,
Authors
David C. Ensminger, Catharine Pritchard, Tracy Langkilde, Tess Gingery, Jeremiah E. Banfield, W. David Walter
By
Cooperative Research Units